As consumers we want to optimise the returns on investment. So, we keep on looking for extracting the best out of the money we are with to buy a product or service including smartphones. The R series from OnePlus is a great value-performance blend. The launches so far in this series have been delivering a great value to the consumers as well as to the company making it one of the best performing series strengthening OnePlus’s position in the ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 segment, what I refer to as OnePlus’s home segment.
The segment of young professionals who have now 3-5 years of professional journey and earning anywhere between 8-12 Lakh per annum understand the elements of performance of a smartphone and look for an all-rounder. However, they don’t want to venture into the luxe (>₹50,000) zone. This is owing to several reasons intrinsic to their life stage where they are expecting many recurring expenses to start accruing and they need to set aside more than 60% of their monthly earnings to meet them up. These professionals could be either owning a two-wheeler (bike or a scooter) or a car priced at less than ₹700,000.
Now this cohort of users wants to have the best of the performance, an all-rounder smartphone but cannot spend more than ₹50,000 for various reasons, some of them explained above. This is exactly the space that R series in general and the newly launched OnePlus 12R particularly occupies.
OnePlus 12R offers all that one can expect in a high performing luxe category smartphone. Of course, a tear down version, which is fine with the users in the segment because they understand they can’t get the same experience and performance as in the luxe segment smartphone, but they can definitely get a similar experience through OnePlus 12R within the price band they are comfortable with.
On the device front in terms of specifications, features and the performance evaluation that we have done over past few weeks since the arrival of this device, there is not a single area where we could find it falling short of the expectations. The only personal change I would have wanted OnePlus to do this time is with the colour as the cool blue shade and its variations have been there for some time killing the freshness that could come out noticeably by making some substantial difference in the colour and exterior design pattern. For example, for me the rib pattern in OnePlus 10R was a refreshing change. But this is a personal preference and consumers will have their own likes and preferences. Otherwise, I see OnePlus 12R as eyes shut buy option.
